Quite the Idiot
by CrazyGeekyLove
Summary: Donnie gets angsty after April and Casey have had their first date. April confronts Donatello... everything goes south from there. Set in future 2k12. Don/April/Casey triangle.
1. Quite the Idiot

Quite the Idiot

**_April/Donatello_**

_Donnie gets angsty after April and Casey have had their first date._

_Set in a future season after Casey has been around a while (and naturally puts the moves on April)._

* * *

Donatello didn't know how he felt about Casey Jones. He'd had plenty of time to warm up to the guy, actually right this moment Casey was in there (their living room) with the other guys and April downing pizza and watching a movie while Don hid away in his laboratory. But all that warm up time hadn't helped much after April and Casey had bashfully admitted they were going on a date.

There was no doubting that Casey had his violence issues under control now and that he genuinely cared about April. It really was the best thing that they date... then Donatello could finally give up on those ridiculously unrealistic fantasies that April would see past the mutant thing and choose him instead. All four of them liked Casey enough, so he passed the test... and April only saw the four of them as brothers to her.

"Get lost?"

Donatello spun at the voice behind him. April. "Uhhh... lost?" He stuttered nervously, as if he was feeling guilt over his own thoughts.

"You were going to go get a drink. Did you forget?"

"Oh yeah. I mean, no. No, I didn't forget. I just had some blueprints in here that I wanted to give a check over..."

April couldn't decide if she was amused at his antics or nervous herself because of how different he was acting with her. She knew it was probably about Casey but what could she do? Casey was the one who'd asked her... and asked her... and asked her... so she shouldn't feel bad for eventually giving in once. She leaned against the wall and surveyed her mutant friend. Survellience which made Donatello even more uncomfortable.

"Movie over?" He asked.

"Nope, but I think Leo is the only one watching. The other three are having a can crunching competition."

"Oh," Don's mouth formed the 'O' slowly, knowingly. "I can see why you're here then."

"Need help?"

It was hard to require help when he was only here to get away from things and be alone with his own thoughts. He shook his head. "So how are things going with Casey?"

Of course, the inevitable question. "He's... Casey. Why?"

"Didn't you guys have that date?" He was trying to keep it as casual sounding as possible, like he just wanted to know and really didn't care.

"Oh yeah..."

April apparently wasn't giving out any details. "So now you two...?"

"Oh no, it was just one date. He'll have to do a lot better than that if he wants to win me over." She smirked at Donnie who looked relieved.

"So it was a bad date then?"

"It had its ups and downs. Find those blueprints yet?"

Donatello flung frantically around at that reminder and dug some out, thrusting them in the air to show her. "Right here. These are exactly what I needed!"

"Mmm hmmm..." She raised an eyebrow skeptically and walked over to the counter where he was leaning against and took the blueprint from him, rolling it out. "So this was what was more important than a movie with your friends..."

He cringed, caught in his lie. But what was he supposed to do? Tell her that he didn't like seeing both her and Casey in the same room anymore? That he kept trying to glimpse something in the way they treated each other to prove their relationship had changed? That it killed him inside to obsess over it like this? "It's not like that, April. I just didn't know if you and Casey were a couple now and..." He could have kicked himself, instead he just bit down on his own tongue.

April was already barely a step away from him, leaning on the counter beside him but she got closer, stepping out in front of him. He could have stopped breathing altogether. "Why would it matter if we were a couple?"

Oh oh. "It wouldn't," he choked out with considerable effort.

"Are you sure? Because you seemed pretty..." April trailed off as Donnie mustered up the courage to take her hands in his larger, mutated ones. She glanced up at him, surprise filling her features. Had he crossed the line? He could have meant it as their usual friendship touches... but she saw through it. Why it mattered if she was with Casey now. Why he felt like he had to hide out tonight particularly. Her eyes bore into his willing him to come clean, to just give her some indication that she had guessed correctly, that he really did want to be with her. He held her gaze, both still and silent for what felt like an eternity before he responded.

"I'm sure."

April felt deflated, disappointed that all her hopes that he'd say what was really on his mind had been dashed. Just say it! she willed him. But he wasn't going to. "So... it's okay if we do... I mean someday... if we do become a couple?" She asked, her throat dry and she didn't want to hear that it was okay. She wanted him to tell the truth. Her eyes closed as he answered, knowing what the answer would be.

"It's your life April." He released her hands. She opened her eyes again quite certain that none of the heartbreak was visible to him.

"And there's no one else, just by chance, that you think I should be with instead?"

She was putting him on the spot and he almost couldn't stand it. "Don't do this..." he warned her, an indent forming on his forehead.

"Do what?" She challenged him.

"Ask that. You know I don't have an answer for that. I'm not entitled to answer that."

"So you're perfectly happy for me to go off and date Casey?"

"I don't have to be happy about it, you do. You two were made for each other, so that's great." Made for each other because they both looked normal. Neither one was green. That's how it worked.

"Yeah, it's great..." Tears were about to fall and April was regretting coming to see Donatello in the first place. Why couldn't he just tell her that he was bothered by it? Why couldn't he just give her an opening? Maybe she would date Casey and one day when they got married Donnie could look back on it all and realize what an idiot he was. She spun on her heel and left.

It didn't take until they went off and got married that Donatello realized what an idiot he was. He realized that now. But what could he do about it? Instead of going after her he just turned and grabbed the blueprint and crumpled it in his hand. He was to blame for what happened next. He was to blame for her happy ending with Casey and for a smart guy, he really was quite the idiot.

* * *

_Does it really need another chapter?_


	2. Rooftop Kissing

Quite the Idiot

.

_Casey puts the moves on. _

* * *

Casey Jones was a vandal turned vigilante, the cool kid at school. He'd been held back, older than April but in the same year. April couldn't really avoid him if she tried. But after he'd befriended Raph they had a new reason to bond and April had a new reason to get to know the man behind the thug.

"Caseyyy, my man." A guy fistbumped him as they walked down the hall together, April with only slight amusement at the exchange. Everyone who was anyone knew who Casey was. But not everyone knew what he did at night. April didn't know if she was privileged to have the scoop... but he had come in to save her butt on a couple of occasions. Not that she'd let him know that.

What happened between Donnie and her, though it was really nothing and it wasn't like anything unusual happened, was playing on her mind. Personally her life was all too complicated right now for a love triangle between one of the turtles (though she didn't just see Donnie as 'one of the turtles') and her newest friend. She had her life to sort out before her love life... though it still didn't stop feelings of confusion creeping up on her whenever she was around the boys.

Casey was great, at times. She honestly had fun fighting with him and he could rile her up and get her both irritated and interested by his taunting and teasing that he put on around her. But Don was something special to her. He had been since the very beginning. The thought of hurting him was inconceivable to her. What might have happened if he'd told her that someone did fit better with her - that he was the one who did! Was she ready to change the relationship she had with the mutant turtle?

On the other hand... it had been nice to go out with Casey on that date. It was sort of like feeling the rush of being a teenager, being liked and having fun. She wouldn't turn down a redo of it.

"April?"

"Yeah?" Casey was talking to her, April was quick to respond. "Are we going to see our friends downtown?" Talking in code to make sure no one picked up that their friends were mutants that lived in the sewers.

"I was thinking it could be just the two of us, babe. We'll catch up with them later."

April raised an eyebrow. Babe? Casey had been testing the waters with what he thought he could get away with lately... she'd have to put a stop to that. But as she'd just thought, the last date was fun, and she'd be happy with a redo of that... as long as things didn't get too serious. "Sure. Where to?"

He flung an arm around her shoulders and led her off away from the school grounds.

... But later things did get too serious.

They were laughing together, climbing up a ladder to the top of an apartment building not far from where she lived. When April lept off she stared out at the view of the city. "Wow." So that was why he suggested this place.

"Told ya," he said smugly. And then everything just clicked. He leaned toward her and she didn't object and when he kissed her, she kissed back. It was nice. Casey wasn't anything like what she'd thought she wanted but she was too engrossed in the moment. It wasn't until after that kiss when she looked across at Casey's face and didn't feel as confident and sure as she did a mere moment ago when she just went with it.

Was this even what she wanted? Casey must have been able to tell her conflicting emotions because he shrugged and went casually back to the ladder. "Com'on. Let's get you out of here."

She was relieved for the out. She truly was. And now, in true teenage fashion, things were getting even more complicated. But Donnie had been wrong. Casey and her weren't made for each other. They were just making do.

* * *

_I really think I'll like Casey when he's introduced and it's okay if he dates April, as long as it's not endgame..._


	3. Everybody Dates

Quite the Idiot

.

_I'm well aware that a visual overdeck processor probably does not exist.  
_

_Maybe it should... for the sake of the story._

* * *

By the end of the week everyone had found out that Casey kissed April, thanks to the big mouths of Casey and Raphael. Donatello didn't know quite what to think about it. It was partly what he expected to happen when he gave April the green light to go ahead and date him, but he didn't expect to feel so hurt over it. Not that he let his brothers know, he just avoided the topic of April as much as possible and tried to avoid the sympathetic looks Leo shot at him. He didn't need the sympathy.

Of course by the next time April dropped by, unaccompanied by Casey, Don might have taken some of that sympathy his brother had to offer.

"Hellllllllllllloooooooo April. Been seeing much of Casey lately?" Donatello could hear the smooching noises Mikey was making at April from his room. "Ow!" Was the next sound he heard from the rambunctious turtle and by the time Donnie came out to greet his friend Mikey was lying flat on his shell. April had obviously responded very appropriately to his teasing.

"Hey Donnie." She turned to him.

And just like that whatever she did or didn't do with Casey was forgiven her. She could do anything and Don was pretty sure he'd have an excuse for her or he'd let it slide. "Hi." He gave her a small three-fingered wave. He'd missed her. He always did. But he accepted that she had a life, a whole other world up there which he could never a part of. He was glad she had that, she deserved it.

"Never tellin' Mikey anything ever again," Raphael turned up suddenly with a gruff sentence that he meant as a semi-apology to April for spilling the beans. Only people that spoke "Raph" would be able to grasp that however. April did and shot him a small smile.

"Soooooo, what've you been working on?"

"Oh not much. You know," his hand went unconsciously to the back of his neck. "Just this visual overdeck processor with a 41 gig hardrive that I had to completely rewire and... just keeping myself busy." He finished with a nervous yelp at the end of it.

"Cool, can I see it?"

Donnie was a little taken aback. "Sure. Um, come with me."

He was used to being the one to ask her to hang out one on one (not that he'd been in the mood for it as much since Casey entered the picture). And it wasn't that April had never wanted to see what he was doing before, it's just that she insisted before talking to anyone else. Before practicing with Splinter. Before messing around with the rest of his brothers. She obviously had a motive for wanting to get him alone - a Casey related motive - but he would take what he could get.

Donatello sat down across from her and then handed over the processor and apprehensively watched her face for her reaction.

"Hey this is awesome," she said, rotating it in her palm.

"Yeah, I thought so too."

He could tell that she was mulling things over in her mind, probably thinking of a bunch of different openings she could use to bring up her new relationship with Casey. He actually felt a little bad for her, she didn't have to explain herself to him. "Look, we don't have to talk about Casey." He told her, meeting her eyes and then quickly looking away.

She sucked in air, clearly surprised that he was the one to bring it up and then shook her head. "No, Donnie. I want to talk about it." She fiddled with the mechanics in her hand for moment, careful not to break Donnie's hard work.

He was listening, intently, leaning forward (and yet painfully aware of her hands still on the processor). He cared about her and he cared if she needed to have a sounding board to vent her feelings for the vigilante. "Okay."

"Casey's a nice guy..." she paused, closing her eyes and imagining just how she was going to put this (delicately of course). "And everybody dates." Her eyes flew open. Everybody? Like the guys? Totally the wrong thing to say. "That's not what I meant." She flushed. "I mean people date." She wanted to hit her forehead with something blunt. Now she was saying that Donnie wasn't a person? Great. Could she screw this up any more? "I just meant that I... this would happen eventually." She finished with a cringe.

"I knew what you meant," he said darkly. "And I told you I was okay with it." It's not like the two of them were ever going to become an item. Donnie may have been optimistic but people had told him that from the very beginning and he was starting to accept it.

"I don't know if I'm okay with it," April replied flatly, her shoulders slumping. "It's just that I have no idea what I'm doing and it's not like my life has exactly stablized and I don't think I have time to date but then I think to myself if not now then when will I ever get time to date? When I'm in college?" She let out a nervous chuckle. "Sometimes I think I like him and sometimes I think..." she trailed off, exhaling. Sometimes she thought she liked someone else.

Donnie didn't know what to make of all this. The friend in him wanted to tell her to stop worrying so much and just enjoy it - this normal rite of passage that he himself would probably never go through. But that other more selfish part wanted to tell her to give up on it and never date again... ever. He'd just opened his mouth to say something when Leonardo opened the door. Donnie had never been so thankful for an interruption before.

"Hey April, Master Splinter's asking for you."

April raised her head with a new determined expression and handed back the processor. "Right! Training!" She said bounding to her feet. "Speak to you later guys."

And with that she was off. Donnie raised his eyes to his brother's expecting to see that usual pity in them and actually relived this time when he did so, as his brother sympathetically clamped him on the shoulder.

"She wanted to talk about Casey." Donatello said with a frown.

"Ah," Leo replied, with a nod of understanding. "You holding up okay?"

"Besides wishing it was me?" He gave a small pathetic laugh, "yeah, I'm doing fine."

"Give her time. April will work things out."

"Or get even closer to Casey..."

"I guess it's a risk you have to take."

"Really not making me feel any better Leo."

"Want to go see Mikey beat Raph at video games?"

"Okay, that might make me feel a little better."

Leo grinned. "I know it will."

* * *

_Sadness..._


	4. Taking Advice

Quite the Idiot

.

_Splinter and Casey are the wise ones in this chapter. _

_Go figure._

* * *

Everyone could sense Donatello's despair from his last meeting with April. It came out even in his training and his brothers weren't happy about it. Splinter could tell that Donatello's attitude was a hinderance to all of them, so he waited until after their training to address it. He took Donatello aside, catching him by the arm before he followed the other guys out of the dojo. When the arm was released, Donnie turned to him almost mournfully.

"I can sense a tension in you, Donatello. You must let it go if you do not wish to endanger your brothers.'

He was partly embarrassed about how obvious it was that the Casey and April kiss had bothered him. "I am. I mean, I'm trying to get over it sensei, I just need a little more time."

One paw ran through Splinter's beard. "Time is not always a luxury we have at our disposal."

"Well how can I get over it any faster?"

"You cannot presume to be angry at the situation if you have not informed Miss O'Neil of you feelings."

Informed her? That was easier said than done. Donatello's shoulders slumped. "I don't know how. I don't want to ruin things between us."

"Oh. You mean ruin feeling angry and jealous behind her back? Or perhaps ruin shutting her out because you can't deal with her feelings for another?"

Donnie slumped even more. "I guess you've got a point." His reluctance to tell her was childish really and he was already potentially ruining things between them.

"Think about it wisely my son. In the worst case she will be flattered and let you down easily."

Donnie cringed. He hadn't thought of it that way. He expected the worst case to be her slapping him, screaming at the suggestion and wanting to never see him again. Now that version of it was starting to look pretty silly in his head. He knew April and thinking about it "wisely" meant that maybe she wouldn't run screaming. April was pretty understanding most of the time. "Sensitive" was the word sensei had used. He could trust her.

He was going to do it. Turtle up and tell her and get over it the right way. The honest way. "You're right sensei." He could do this.

* * *

Meanwhile...

What was wrong with her? Everybody dates? It was still playing on her mind a couple of days later. And things were still developing between her and Casey. All her apprehension was starting to sink in. What was she doing? She wasn't a normal teen and this wasn't a normal teen relationship. She could never just have a normal relationship. She should have known that from the start.

"Soooo you, me, Friday night. It should be great." They were walking side by side leaving school. He was walking his motorbike and she kept step with him. This was nice... it was too bad he had to bring up the inevitable.

"Yeah I've been meaning to talk to you about that."

"Shoot." Casey said casually, wind in his hair.

"I don't really think this is fair... I was talking to Donnie and maybe it's better if..."

"So what?" He interrupted. "You're not going to date because the turtles can't? That's a pretty pathetic cop out O'Neil."

Her eyes dropped to the pavement. It was embarrassing come to think of it. The classic bad boy at her disposal and here she was acting like a freak and giving the turtles as her excuse not to date him. "Not exactly."

"So you just want to be friends?"

"Could we? I mean it's not that you're not a great guy and everything... it just doesn't seem right. And aren't we a bit early to start dating?"

Casey felt like he was getting a headache. Girls. One minute they were hot for it and the next minute... this. "You're kidding me right? Everybody dates April."

"Not everybody."

"Right," he muttered. The turtles. Raph was his best bud. She couldn't act like he was the only one in the universe sympathetic to their mutant friend's plight. And I suppose she meant herself now too. He was starting to clue into what was going on. All her excuses. Raph's brother, the purple one. Donatello. He swung his leg over his motorbike. "Your call O'Neil." She held all the cards. "You want me, go for it. You want Donatello, go for it. You want to hold off dating until your daddy is around to disapprove, go for it."

April glowered at him for that. "It's not that." Donatello maybe, but not her father.

"Then what are you waiting for?" His brows rose and he shot her a pointed look. "Call me if ya change your mind O'Neil. I'll be seeing ya." And with that he kick started his bike and took off down the street.

Casey was (jerkishly) right. What was she waiting for? Her life to settle down? Was she going to wait indefinitely to have normal teenage experiences? Or was it just because of who she wanted to have them with that she was resisting and putting off the teenage scene of dating? How long would she just keep denying it?

She walked along and started down an alleyway. The wrong alleyway apparently.

"Well lookie what we found..."

_Drat._

* * *

_Drama drama._

_The next chapter is not written, inspire me by leaving a **review** if you want._


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